JUST IN: New, locally owned coffee & tea company to launch 1st store

— A locally owned and independent coffee company is scheduled to open its first physical retail shop this spring inside the Huber Heights Meijer store, and the shop’s owner says many more locations are in the works.

A spokesman for Meijer confirmed that Grind House Coffee and Tea Co. — founded in 2015 by Dayton native Bill Miller — will open a coffee shop inside and near the front entrance of the Meijer store at 7150 Executive Blvd., near the I-70/Ohio 201 (Brandt Pike) interchange.

“We commonly partner with different companies to open locations in our stores in these concourse spaces, to add even more value to the customers’ shopping experience,” Joe Hirschmugl, public relations manager for Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Meijer, told this news outlet via email. “Grind House Coffee & Tea approached us, and we quickly discovered that they would make a good local partner.”

Plans call for opening coffee shops in additional Meijer stores in the months ahead, Miller said. Each store will employ eight to 10 people. The Grind House founder said he also is looking to open free-standing stores as the brand expands through the Dayton-Cincinnati region.

Grind House Coffee and Tea will open a new coffee shop inside the Huber Heights Meijer store, and plans to open several more bricks-and-mortar coffee shops. SUBMITTED(Staff Writer)

“We are hoping to add over 100 new jobs during our expansion within the next 18 months,” Miller said.

Miller, who grew up in Dayton and who now lives in Franklin, founded Grind House Coffee & Tea in November 2015 as an online retailer. The company’s roasting and packing facility is located in Fairfield.

Launching a coffee company “has always been a dream of mine,” Miller told this news outlet in June. “My family has had a love for coffee and tea that started with my great-grandfather.”

“My family has always imported beans from other countries. We would experiment mixing different beans together and see what worked and what didn’t. When I was older I learned how to create flavored coffees and how to blend teas.”

“My mother knew I had always wanted to open a coffee shop and encouraged me to start looking into it. When my mother passed away in 2015, it was my father who told me to get up and follow my dreams.”